The ultimate community for HBCU marching band fans. Connect, vote, and celebrate the culture that makes halftime the main event
Live from the 50 is the ultimate community platform for HBCU marching band fans, alumni, students, and supporters. Whether you bleed school colors or just love the sound of a powerful halftime show, this is your home for everything HBCU bands.
Comprehensive Band Database
Browse a database of 65+ HBCU marching bands with school logos, colors, conference affiliations, and locations. Discover bands from the SWAC, MEAC, SIAC, CIAA, and more.
Interactive Band Rankings
Rate your favorite bands across 12 performance categories including tone, volume, precision, musicality, percussion, marching drill, color guard, and crowd appeal. See how bands stack up in real-time community rankings.
Community Forums
Join the conversation in general discussion forums or connect with your university community in school-specific forums. Share your hot takes, post photos and videos, and reply to other fans with media attachments.
Direct Messaging
Send private messages to other members of the community. Stay connected with fellow band fans and alumni.
Video Player
Watch HBCU band performance videos with a built-in video player featuring Picture-in-Picture support so you can keep watching while browsing the app.
Live Broadcasting
Watch live streams of band performances and events. Approved broadcasters can go live directly from the app with an owner-approval workflow to maintain quality content.
Up to Date Football Schedules
Stay up to date with complete SWAC and MEAC football schedules so you never miss a halftime show.
User Profiles
Create your profile, upload a profile picture, set your university affiliation, and customize your experience.
Push Notifications
Get notified when you receive direct messages, when someone replies to your forum posts, or when a live stream starts.
Content Moderation & Safety
Report inappropriate content across the platform. User blocking, age verification, and moderation tools help keep the community safe and welcoming.
Dark Mode, Light Mode & University Mode
Choose from three theme options — a sleek dark mode with gaming aesthetic, a clean light mode, or University Mode that transforms the app into your school's colors.
Settings & Preferences
Full control over your notification preferences, theme selection, and account settings.
This app is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by any university.
Ratings & Reviews
This app hasn’t received enough ratings or reviews to display an overview.
Home
Rotating hero carousel (auto-advances every 4 seconds)
Live stats: total posts, videos, and votes across the app
Live activity feed — recent actions by other users in real time
Top 3 ranked bands with logos
Quick links to every major section
Pull-to-refresh
Feed (Social Timeline)
Scrollable post timeline from all users
Create posts with text and/or photos/videos
Like / unlike posts
Reply to posts
Repost with an optional comment
Follow / unfollow users directly from the feed
Delete your own posts
View post author profiles
Report posts
Forum
Browse posts by category (band, school, or conference)
Search forum posts by keyword
Create forum posts with title, body, category, and optional image/video attachments
Vote posts up or down
Write replies with @username mentions and up to 4 media attachments
Emoji reactions on posts and replies
Report posts or individual replies
Delete your own posts
Band Battle
Weekly head-to-head matchup between two HBCU bands
Live vote counts and percentage bars
Vote once per battle (one vote per user)
Countdown timer to battle end
Battle history — browse past matchups and results
Real band logos displayed for each competitor
Videos
Video library with thumbnails, title, author, view count, and date
Tap to play in a floating video player (stays up while you browse)
YouTube URL support with auto-parsed video IDs
Fullscreen playback with automatic landscape rotation
Minimize the player to keep watching while navigating
Upload/add videos (authenticated users)
Events (Schedule)
SWAC and MEAC game schedules filterable by conference and week
Game cards with away/home teams, logos, school colors, kickoff time, TV network, and location
Live scores and FINAL results for completed games
Countdown to kickoff for upcoming games
Set game reminders
Conference standings with win/loss records and streaks (expandable/collapsible)
Rankings
Full HBCU band rankings by vote totals
Band logos, school names, conference, and rank position
Tap a band to open their Band Detail page
Band Detail
Band profile: name, school, conference, location, colors
Overall rating and total votes
Submit your own star rating
Band's recent activity and community content
Direct Messages (Chat)
View all your conversations with unread counts
Start a new conversation by searching any user (2+ character search)
Send and receive text messages
Messages marked as read when conversation is opened
Unread badge on the Chat tab (live, updates every 30 seconds, capped at 99+)
Block / unblock users
Version 2.3
The developer, Stanley Williams, indicated that the app’s privacy practices may include handling of data as described below. For more information, see the developer’s privacy policy .
Data Linked to You
The following data may be collected and linked to your identity:
Contact Info
User Content
Identifiers
Usage Data
Privacy practices may vary, for example, based on the features you use or your age. Learn More
Accessibility
The developer has not yet indicated which accessibility features this app supports. Learn More
Information
Seller
Stanley Williams
Size
39.4 MB
Category
Social Networking
Compatibility
Requires iOS 15.1 or later.
iPhone Requires iOS 15.1 or later.
iPad Requires iPadOS 15.1 or later.
iPod touch Requires iOS 15.1 or later.
Mac Requires macOS 12.0 or later and a Mac with Apple M1 chip or later.
